Traditionally, testing of blood or other body fluids for medical evaluation and diagnosis was the exclusive domain of large, well-equipped central laboratories. While such laboratories offer efficient, reliable, and accurate testing of a high volume of fluid samples, they cannot offer rapid turn-around of results to enable more immediate medical decision making. A medical practitioner typically must collect samples, transport them to a laboratory, wait for the samples to be processed and then wait for the results to be communicated. Even in hospital settings, the handling of a sample from the patient's bedside to the hospital laboratory produces significant delays. This problem is compounded by the variable workload and throughput capacity of the laboratory and the compiling and communicating of data.
The introduction of point-of-care analyte testing systems enabled practitioners to obtain immediate test results while examining a patient, whether in the physician's office, the hospital emergency room, or at the patient's bedside. To be effective, a point-of-care analyte device must provide error-free operation for a wide variety of tests in relatively untrained hands. For optimum effectiveness, a real-time system requires minimum skill to operate, while offering maximum speed for testing, appropriate accuracy and system reliability, as well as cost effective operation. A notable point-of-care system (The i-STAT® System, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Princeton, N.J.) is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,669, which comprises a disposable device, operating in conjunction with a hand-held analyzer, for performing a variety of measurements on blood or other fluids.
However, unique obstacles and challenges have arisen with the advent of point-of-care analyte testing systems that may impede error-free operation of these systems in relatively untrained hands. Specifically, in the traditional central laboratories, the analyte testing systems are large and placed in fixed locations within the laboratory such that the instrumentation is rarely influenced by the effects of motion or device impact. However, with point-of-care analyte testing systems, the instrumentation is generally small and portable, e.g., a handheld mobile device, such that the probability of the instrumentation being influenced from the effects of motion and device impacts is significantly greater. For example, it is not uncommon for point-of-care analyte testing systems to be dropped or jostled by relatively untrained hands prior to or during operation. The dropping or jostling of point-of-care analyte testing systems prior to or during operation may have disadvantageous effects on the operation of the systems. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to improve upon the overall quality of point-of-care analyte testing systems by ameliorating the effect of motion or device impact on the point-of-care analyte testing systems.